Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). Another standard can include 3GPP long term evolution (LTE). The UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks.
User equipment (UE) can communicate with multiple cells in an active set over such networks to receive wireless network access. This can increase throughput at the UE by allowing the UE to simultaneously receive downlink communications from the multiple cells in a given network. In current systems, one of the multiple cells is considered the serving cell for managing resources relating to uplink communications from the UE, which is usually the cell with more desirable downlink radio conditions as measured by the UE. In addition, one or more base stations can provide each of the multiple cells, and the base stations are often of different power classes (e.g., macro cell base stations that transmit on the order of 20 Watts (W), pico cell base stations that transmit on the order of 1 W, etc.). UEs, however, transmit uplink communications at a single power, which can result in a power imbalance at the cells.
For example, the UE can be served by a macro cell provided by a macro cell base station, but the UE can also be closer to a pico cell provided by a pico cell base station. Both cells can be in the active set of the UE such that the UE receives downlink communications from both the macro cell and the pico cell. In this example, the UE is situated such that the stronger power of the macro cell results in better radio conditions at the UE than the pico cell. Thus, though the UE is physically closer to the pico cell, the macro cell is the serving cell for the UE because its downlink power is greater than that of the pico cell (and/or the pathloss from the macro cell to the UE is lower than from the pico cell to the UE). The pico cell, however, may experience better radio conditions for receiving communications from the UE in its current location since the UE is physically closer to the pico cell (and/or the pathloss from the UE to the pico cell is lower than from the UE to the macro cell).
Furthermore, in some systems, the pico cell can transmit commands to the UE to lower its communication rate/power on uplink resources due to the UE's proximity to the pico cell and because the pico cell is in the UE's active set. Where the UE lowers its communication rate/power over the uplink resources, the macro cell, which is the serving cell for the UE, may receive unreliable uplink communications from the UE. This can impact the UE's ability to reliably communicate data back to the serving cell for providing to a wireless network, for indicating feedback on downlink communication resources, for controlling aspects of an uplink communication grant from the serving cell, etc.